Thanks Nat. Here's what the Oxford English Dictionary says:

a. One whose business it is to mend shoes.
1362 Langland Piers Plowman A. v. 170 Clement þe Cobelere caste of his cloke.
c1450 in T. Wright & R. P. Wülcker Anglo-Saxon & Old Eng. Vocab. (1884) I. 602 Pictaciarius, a Cobulare, or a Cloutere.
1486 Bk. St. Albans F vij a, A Dronkship of Coblers.
?1518 Cocke Lorelles Bote sig. B.i, A coryat And a cobeler his brother.
1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 206/2 Cobblar, sauetier.
1621 R. Sanderson Serm. I. 214 It is never well, when the cobler looketh above the ankle.
1647 N. Ward Simple Cobler Aggawam 59 Such a Cobler, as will not exchange either his blood or his pride, with any Shoo-maker or Tanner in your Realme.
1710 Brit. Apollo III. No. iii. 3/2 The Richer the Cobler, The blacker his Thumb.
1766 O. Goldsmith Vicar of Wakefield II. i. 5 Coblers‥only mended shoes, but never made them.
1809 Med. Jrnl. 21 496 The cobler's memory cannot be so defective.
1856 J. A. Froude Hist. Eng. I. 37 If the village cobbler made ‘unhonest’ shoes.


2. One who mends clumsily, a clumsy workman, a mere botcher.
1594 T. Nashe Terrors of Night To Rdr., They would rather be Tailors to make, than botchers or coblers to amend or to marre.
a1616 Shakespeare Julius Caesar (1623) i. i. 11 Truely Sir, in respect of a fine Workman, I am but as you would say, a Cobler.
1681 W. Robertson Phraseologia Generalis (1693) 342 A cobbler or botcher.
?1791 R. Burns Let. (1985) , Thou Cobler, botching the flimsy socks of bombast Oratory.
1811 Byron Let. 21 Aug. (1973) II. 76 He was beyond all the Bloomfields & Blacketts & their collateral coblers.


4. ‘A sort of pie, baked in a pot lined with dough of great thickness, upon which the fruit is placed; according to the fruit, it is an apple or a peach cobbler’ U.S. ‘Western’. (Bartlett.)
1859 in J. R. Bartlett Dict. Americanisms (ed. 2) 90.
1880 ‘M. Twain’ Tramp Abroad xlix. 575, I have‥made out a little bill of fare‥as follows:‥Peach cobbler, Southern style.
1946 Farmhouse Fare 130 October cobbler. 1 quart blackberries.‥ Place the berries‥in a buttered pie-dish and sprinkle with lemon juice‥roll out the paste to the size of the pie-dish. Place on top of the fruit.

cobbler-like adj. and adv. like a cobbler or botcher.
1576 G. Gascoigne Complaynt of Phylomene in Steele Glas sig. R, Se how coblerlike I haue clouted a new patch to an olde sole.
1820 W. Tooke tr. Lucian I. 77 (note) , Lucian here purposely makes Micyllus joke a little cobler-like.

New Zealand anyone?

http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/6670471/Cobblers-a-rare-but-sought-after-b reed-in-city

Thanks Al,
Christchurch has had two massive earthquakes over the last 18 months and the city is still recovering. The CBD was totalled.
As for the training, yeah apprenticeship schemes were stopped by a dopey government in all trades several years ago, and it seriously stuffed things here.

The University of Northampton and Northampton Museum and Art Gallery supported by Northampton Borough Council invite you to submit papers for a World Footwear Conference at the University of Northampton. The World at Your Feet will be held 20 - 21 March 2013 .

This is a cross disciplinary conference and we aim to attract those from different academic disciplines including, but not exclusively, fashion and design, sociology, anthropology and ethnography, history and psychology. We aim to bring those together interested in design and fashion but also those interested in the history and cultural significance of shoes.

The conference aims to foster debate and discussion under the theme of World Footwear.

Please see the attached PDF for further information.


World Footwear Conference pdf Call For Papers

Proxy Post--

Hi I am looking for help. We operate the website for www.shoemakers.org.uk which features many of the UK hand shoemakers. They are all small businesses mostly 1 man/woman operations. We are in the process of updating our website (see www2.shoemakers.org.uk.), which features a single shoe on the front page. My feeling is that it should not be the product of a member; equally it should not be a machine made product. Hence this email to you, can you or a member of your group offer an image of a hand made shoe which we can use. I think I must say it will not be titled or attributed. Hope you can help us. Thanks in anticipation. Cheers Brian Woodward.

I was recently asked to do a long distance interview with a gentleman--Mr. Ville Raivio--who operates a blog out of Finland addressing classic men's styles. The interview arose just as he is taking the blog international.

Some of his previous interviews have been with Bernhard Roetzel, G. Bruce Boyer, Karl Matthews, Alan Flusser, Will Boehlke and Luca Rubinacci , among others. And while those names don't mean much to a rather isolated, semi-retired old snab such as myself, the names will resonate with anyone that keeps up with the fashion world.

It occurred to me that some here might enjoy it--KEIKARI.COM 24 Feb.2013

Tight Stitches
DWFII--HCC Member

PS...the author of the Keikari blog just recently added the 10+year old Oregon Public Broadcasting ArtBeat clip.

Time passes so fast when you're having fun...or not looking. I sure looked buff back then [sigh]

Tight Stitches
DWFII--HCC Member

DW,

Thank you for sharing that with us, As always I enjoy reading the account of lives of boot and shoemakers,Your's a admirable one, To live of the fruits of one's hands is honourable in any age, but especially the one we are in.I wish you and Randee all the best,We are looking forward to see more fine boots from you.

Regards
Nasser

Nasser,

Thank you. I don't know that my life is particularly admirable...sometimes you just get lucky. Now if I could only win the lottery.

Tight Stitches
DWFII--HCC Member

I'm proud to call myself a student of yours.

I enjoyed reading this.

In some ways, we're all students of yours.

-Nat

Paul, Nat,

Well, that's very kind...both of you. Makes me blush.

But it also leads me back to what I said in the interview--I'm a student of the Trade. We're all students of the Trade. Each of us just one link in the long chain of a precious heritage...master to student, friend to friend, given and received knowledge.

I've learned from so many...my own teacher and through him from his teacher (whoever that was). From Al Saguto and through him from Earnest Peterkin. From Nasser and through him from Fred Longtin. From Jon Grey and and Lance Pryor, and Dan Freeman and Tim Skyrme. And Anthony Delos and John Lobb and George Cleaverly and James Ducker (CarreDucker)and so many others.From Thornton and Golding and Swaysland and Leno and Rees.

It's a long list and a cardinal responsibility to not only be worthy of it but to give it back in the spirit it was given...which may, in fact, be the same thing.

If you think you're students of mine, you're also students of theirs. It's inescapable.

Given and received--precious, worth preserving and protecting.

Tight Stitches
DWFII--HCC Member

Quote: "If you think you're students of mine, you're also students of theirs. It's inescapable."

Absolutely...

Regards,
-Nat

This morning I was forwarded a link to this short clip featuring a mechanical device to measure the square footage of hides. What an amazing piece of equipment. I thought it might be of interest.


Subject: Dirty Jobs clip

A calculus performing mechanical calculator. Awesome.

http://boingboing.net/2013/03/04/calculus-performing-mechanical.html

Joe Hall

Very Cool. Great thing to share with others.
I appreciate that info Joe.
Paul

For those who may be interested:
JesseLee Cantrell started a youtube video series (3 so far) on 19th century bootmaking.

Click Here:
19th century bootmaking

Just in case there's a problem with the hyperlink, here's the URL to cut 'n paste in your browser address bar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ibvlxuvR2A

Cheers,
-Nat

(Message edited by Kemosabi on March 06, 2013)

Quote: "So it shouldn't be a surprise that shoemakers here in the U.S. are disappearing. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in the next ten years, there will be 1,400 fewer shoemakers than there are right now."

Seems like there's only about 1400 makers in the US, even now. Hopefully, I'm wrong.

-Nat

I was surprised to hear they think there are 1400, unless they’re including factory workers at the few remaining US shoe factories.

There is a good book on boot and shoe manufacture by Frank Plucknett, 1916 on Amazon.ca if any one interested.
http://www.amazon.ca/Introduction-Theory-Practice-Boot-Manufacture/dp/1130533824 /ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1366382174&sr=1-1

Hi Nassar,

Available on Amazon US also.

http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Theory-Practice-Boot-Manufacture/dp/117355183 2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1366420304&sr=8-1&keywords=Introduction+to+the+Theory+a nd+Practice+of+Boot+and+Shoe+Manufacture

Cheaper too.

Art

I have the old 1916 version in hard cover and hand bind, a very good read and fair price,my copy was 30.00

Nasser

Nasser,

I believe I have a copy as well...although I'm not sure it is hand-bound. I also have a hand signed copy of Swaysland.

It's amazing to think that these books are nearing a hundred years old.

Tight Stitches
DWFII--HCC Member